Paneer Methi Pulao

This fragrant pulao is a well balanced meal and a perfect dish when you are under time crunches. Including the preparatory work, this dish can be put together in less than 30 minutes. Melt in your mouth kind of home made paneer and peas give you the protein punch needed where as the veggies tomato, kasoori methi and onion adequately contribute their flavor and fragrance to this simple yet delicious dish.

Ingredients to serve at least three:
Cooked rice - 3 cups
Paneer cubes - 1 cup
Tomato - 2
Chopped onion - 1 cup
Frozen green peas - 1/2 cup
Kasoori methi - one heaped Tbsp
Cashews - 1 Tbsp
Clove, Bay leaf, whole cardamom, one inch cinnamon stick - one each
Cumin powder, Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp each
Pepper powder, Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp each
Chili powder - 1 tsp
Salt - 2 tsp
Oil - 2 -3 Tbsp

The Cooking part:
Heat the oil in a skillet and add paneer cubes to it. Fry them till they get just brown specs and remove them with a slotted spoon and keep them aside.
Add cashews, cumin seeds. clove, cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaf in this order to the same oil. When cashews turn golden brown, add chopped onion and saute them till they turn translucent. It would take around 5 minutes.
Mean while, cook the frozen peas with little water in a MW for a minute. Chop the tomatoes into big chunks and puree them in a blender.
Add the puree to the sauteed onions and fry on medium heat for a couple of minutes. Then add kasoori methi, cumin powder, coriander powder, chili powder, pepper powder, turmeric powder and salt to the onion and tomato mixture. Cook for few more minutes till all the moisture has evaporated from the tomatoes and the oil appears on the sides. (You can cook on high to speed up the process but be around and keep stirring the mixture so that tomato mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the skillet). Turn off the stove.
Now add the cooked peas, fried panner and rice to the above mixture and stir well so that rice is properly coated with the spices.
Serve this yummy pulao with a cup of yogurt and some chips.

Note:
You can either use basmati rice or the sona masuri variety. 3/4 cup of sona masuri rice will give you 3 cups of cooked rice. Cook rice while the vegetables are frying or use any left over rice. You can add garlic to the above recipe.

This one goes to Mallugirl's Summer Express Cooking event and to Jihva - Rice, hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam.

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